What do you guys think of the Bundesliga not on tv next year?

Whats the story? I haven't heard anything about next years lineup.

 

Man, that really sucks. Diversity people! I don't mind them dropping a couple of the leagues, but try getting good soccer from other countries. They should keep Germany and try to get like Italy and Spain too. The French and Dutch leagues dont matter because they aren't really popular in the states anyways

 

That would royally suck. I get digital for one reason and one reason only, and that's FSW, and I want FSW for one reason, and one reason only, and that BL soccer. FSW would have one less subscriber, to be sure. Is this definite, or is this still just being talked about?

 

Hopefully the BL will make their matches available over the internet as that is the wave of the future anyway.

 

I'm pretty miffed about it, if it's true. However, I'm not that surprised. I've always known in the back of my mind that FSW might ax BL coverage, so I've been taking a "well, I'll enjoy it while it lasts" stance.

Let's be honest, there can't be that big of a Bundesliga following here in the USA. FSW needs to get good ratings to succeed (just like any other media outlet), and I doubt that it is drawing great ratings from the BL, Dutch league, French league, or Brazillian league.

As a small representative sampling, I see 5 or 6 Americans here in the Germany forum who regularily post. Contrast that with the EPL forums, and all of the individual EPL team forums, which has tons of regular posters. The Germany forum is dwarfed by the EPL forums.

There just seems to be a natural connection to the EPL for American soccer fans, and thus a strong following, and lot's of tradition. The Bundesliga, by contrast, probably has an American following consisting of mostly former soccer players who watched "Soccer Made in Germany" in the early '80's, like me. Either that, or they are people who were originally from Germany, or lived in Germany for a while. In any of these scenarios, the market is pretty small.

Also, I've been increasinly dismayed with the direction of the Bundesliga. Rather than being one of the best leagues that featured primarily great German players mixed in with a decent amount of (quality) foreign stars, it has become a bastion of mediocre foreign players from mostly mediocre soccer nations (to the tune of 60% foreign players). The result has been that the Bundesliga has been featuring less and less the efficient, fast, and skilled German soccer that I grew to know and love over the years, and is featuring more and more of a disjointed, "kick the ball up and down the field" style soccer.

Don't get me wrong, I still love the Bundesliga. And I will miss it if FSW gives it the ax. But I will just watch more EPL and more MLS (which I like doing anyways), and get on with life.

 

I dont mind.. anyways FSW and FSEspanol have been going down hill ever since GolTV came on the scene. If FSW decides to drop the Bundesliga, i'm sure GolTV will pick it up. So if you dont have GolTV just get Dish Network and you're set. Also, GolTV shows live games from Serie A and La Liga every weekend.

Peru y tu?

 

1. Enjoy it while you can might be an admirable devil-may-care approach to things, but it is the road less taken in my book. I was not sitting here 8 months ago saying, boy, I enjoy paying a $1.35 for gas, so I might as well enjoy it while I can, and that way, I can peacably accept paying $2.00 now.

2. Yes, the EPL following is larger than the BL following, but . . . the NFL has a larger following than the NHL, and ABC still finds time to show NHL games. The NFL has a larger following than MLB, but Fox still shows baseball games. You can't show EPL 24/7. There is not enough programming to go around, and even if there was, people would quickly lose interest in "EPL all the time." Last I checked, the name of the network was Fox Sports World, not Fox EPL. The BL is probably FSW's second best property. A live game Saturday, a live game Sunday, in one of Europe's top leagues. That's good stuff. Seriously, what does FSW show if there is no BL Saturday game? Infomercials. Is FSW saying that infomercials are better programming the a German soccer game on Saturday morning? If so, it is not a serious sports network.

3. I suppose high quality soccer is high quality soccer. But I personally can't watch much, if any EPL. Why? I don't give a darn about ManU or Sir Alex Ferguson, or Arsenal and Thierry Henry, and I sure as hell don't care about Portsmouth or Middlesborugh. Nothing is going to change that. I will not watch EPL, because I don't care who wins, and who loses, and apart from the brief period of novelty in seeing an American play, there is nothing to hold my interest if I don't have an interest in the outcome.

4. The BL might not be as high a quality league as the EPL (although the difference is not going to be noticeable to casual observers, and I'd hazard a guess that most of us this cannot aspire to a label much more than casual fans), but I do think the league is more compelling (BL winners in recent years: Werder, Bayern, Dortmund, Kaiserslautern, with compelling runs by Leverkusen, Stuttgart, and Schalke; 2 CL winners and a finalist). Every year in the EPL, it's ManU or Arsenal, Arsenal or ManU (we'll see what happens with Chelsea). That's drudgery. No real competition between after those two. Since the formation of the EPL, I believe the only team other than ManU or Arsenal to win was Blackburn, and that would seem to be a fluke.

5. These leagues are, I believe, cyclical. What happens when the EPL declines? How do you manage your stock portfolio? Do you load it up with the hot stocks, or do you diversify. I think any financial planner would tell yo to diversify. My advise to FSW is the same.

6. Would ESPN be successful if all it showed was the NBA?

 

Spot on. I love the fact that I can pick a game from multiple leagues to watch on Saturday and Sunday. I'll be disappointed if they become an EPl only station.

 

All great points Wolfsburgh. You've convinced me to not be so "devil may care" about it.

FSW would totally suck if it were all EPL, all the time. It would be even worse if they constantly showed the dreadful FA cup games (who the fvck cares about all of those amature teams?).

You're also right that the EPL is always Arsenal or ManU. People mistakingly think that the BL is a one horse (Bayern) race. But the competition each year has proven otherwise. Bayern is always being given a good run for their money, and when they've won the league, it's usually by a last second goal on the last day of competition. Big competition has come from Dortmund, Leverkusen, Schalke, Stuttgart, and Bremen. Any of these teams have a ligitimate shot at winning the league, year after year. Where as in the EPL, everyone knows that only the Arse or Manure will win it, and now maybe Chelski with their billionaire Russian sugar daddy. No one else has a snowball's chance in hell to win it.

I like watching the EPL, but I have trouble caring about any of the teams, or any of the results. I care about BL teams (especially Bayern).

I sincerely hope that FSW does not ax the BL. In my previous post, I was just being philosophical about it.

Fvck it. We should all write FSW to tell them we want them to keep the BL, and that we won't watch an "all EPL" channel.

 

Likewise, I subscribed to digital cable and FSW(Canada) for Bundesliga coverage ONLY. They have since added MLS to the schedue and an A-League game of the week (hey, that's the league my city has a team in) which I am also interested in seeing. Here in Canada, we get a fair amount of EPL on regular cable. Might just have to drop the digital box if they do not have Bundesliga.

 

I got DTV years ago only for FSW and for BL games. Now I have digital cable with FSW. I would be very disappointed if they only really had EPL and MLS.
German Highlight Show is my favorite show on TV!

 

Godammit! Another reason to hate this country. The Bundesliga is the best league in Europe in my opinion, I enjoy it more than any other league. They can still keep that around. They dont have to completely take it off. I think it's more popular than the French and Dutch league.

Cris N.

 

so what leagues are FSW going to show now that they will drop so many leagues? obviously a tons of EPL, A lot more MLS, the argie league will stay since they have it in FSWE, more Copa Libertadores in English?

does FSW show Copa Libertadores?. Maybe they will show it more often to introduce Americans to it to give them a taste of it before mls teams join the tournament. More Copa Libertadores and more MLS besides lots of EPL, just my guess.

 

How do you know the Bundesliga won't be back? Allen Hoppkins the Bundesliga commentator said it will be back for the 2004-05 season. The BL is the reason I have digital cable. Please everyone write to FSV. WE WANT THE BL BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!